Kukla's Korner Hockey

Do you suspect that the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the United States Army might have some sort of affiliation?

This question lies at the heart of a notice of opposition filed Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Army in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (a.k.a. the USPTO, the government agency that administers the national trademark registry). Among other points, the Army stresses that the U.S. Army Parachute Team, which over the last 55 years has performed in more than 16,000 shows, has long been nicknamed the Golden Knights—quite unlike the expansion NHL team that adopted the name only 14 months ago. And, for sports and entertainment purposes, the Army has for decades used a color scheme similar to that now employed by said NHL team.

Is it harmless admiration for one service branch of the U.S. Armed Forces? Or is it unlawful copycatting that damages the Army’s brand?

Comments

The Army warned them repeatedly going into this that any of the variations of Knight (Black Knight, Golden Knight, etc) that the owner wanted were going to cause problems with the army. The dumb owner did it anyways. Even though the Army told him “Look, don’t do this”.... so this is not some frivolous bit of litigation after the fact.

I’ll find it absolutely hilarious if they have to completely re-brand now out of this, because they also can’t use just plain Knights thanks to London.

It is not, in fact, better to ask forgiveness later than it is to ask permission first. My 5 and 7 year olds have learned that. Apparently a grown-a** man who owns a hockey team has yet to.

Is the Army actually financially injured by this? Do you believe the presence of a hockey team by the same name injures the promotional arm of the parachuters? I mean, maybe an ill-advised move by Vegas. On the other hand, the Army argument isn’t that compelling to me.

I don’t know the legalities of it, but over the Christmas holidays I put on a Golden Knights game and my brother (who lives a stone’s throw away from Westpoint) looked at the screen and said “Army has an NHL team?”

The Clarkson Golden Knights came to be in 1919, the Army didn’t put their Golden Knights together until 1962. Seems like Clarkson is going to have a legitimate case against the Army stealing their name if the Army vs. LV case doesn’t get thrown out.

Indeed, the two entities have been coexisting without any issues for over a year and we are not aware of a single complaint from anyone attending our games that they were expecting to see the parachute team and not a professional hockey game.